Reinforced flooring tile



Oct. 3, 1967 v E. MARSON 3,344,570

REINFORCED FLO R NG T Filed Dec. 1l, 1964 United States Patent O3,344,570 REINFORCED FLOORING TILE Emilio Marson, 1 Via Stacchetti,Genoa, Italy Filed Dec. 11, 1964, Ser. No. 417,750 1 Claim. (Cl. 52-315)ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A reinforced flooring tile of rectangular formcomprising a body of concrete with a reinforcing framework embeddedtherein, said framework being composed of a rectangular frame, all foursides of which are spaced inwardly a short distance from the peripheryof the tile and downwardly below the upper surface of the tile, thespace inside the rectangular frame being covered by a reinforcingnetwork formed of edgewise positioned fiat bars'integral with therectangular` frame and with their upper edges lying in the plane of theupper surface of the tile, the space between the rectangular frame andthe periphery of the tile being traversed by rectilinear prolongationsof said bars, said prolongations extending across and being integralwith said frame, the free ends of the prolongations terminating at theperiphery of the tile at points equally spaced from one another and fromthe corners of the tile along all four edges of the tile.

This invention relates to flooring tiles and has for its object themanufacture of ooring tiles made of concrete and reinforced at their topby a network of a wear resistant material such as a suitable syntheticresin or a rigid light alloy.

The object of the invention is to manufacture wear resistant flooringtiles by which, llush with the wear surface a network or wear-resistantmaterial is visible, so as to give an aesthetic and not monotonousappearance to the floor, said material being constituted of a suitablenetwork or frame-work of edgewise arranged flat bars, obtained as asingle piece by moulding a suitable material such as a wear-resistantmouldable thermoplastic synthetic resin, or a suitable light alloy.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the thermoplasticsynthetic resin forming the reinforcing network may be of the classcomprising polyethylene, polystirol, polyvinyl chloride and the like.

If, instead of a synthetic resin, a metallic reinforcing network ispreferred, this may be made of a light alloy, such as analuminum-magnesium alloy or the class including the alloy sold under thetradename of Duraluminium or the like.

The reinforced flooring tile according to the invention is preferablymanufactured by preparing a reinforcing integral network adapted to beinscribed in a rectangular flooring tile outline and comprising aplurality of segments forming a number of polygons and, in addition,having open segments ending at equal distances from each other and/ orfrom the angle formed at the intersection of the straight lines drawntangent to the ends of the said open segments and corresponding to theoutline of one complete tile.

In this manner, by arranging the flooring tiles with adjoining likesides, also the ends of the open segments of one tile come in line withthe ends of the open segments of the adjoining tile and form togetherclosed polygons.

Further, according to the invention, said network forms in its entiretya reinforcing frame member, whose sides are parallel to the sides of thetile outline, said frame extending below the outer face of the tile, soas to remain substantially wholly embedded in the concrete, or mayextend to the lower tile face.

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Also, according to the invention, at least a part of the segmentsconstituting the reinforcing network may be provided with anchoringcross members which, like the frame, do not project up to the tilesurface and may remain either completely embedded in the concrete or mayextend down to the lower tile face.

In this manner reinforcing and anchoring members are provided, which addto the strength of the tiles and prevent detaching of the concrete fromthe reinforcing network, particularly in proximity of the tile sides andbottom face.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing specification made with reference to the accompanying drawing,in which:

FIGURES 1 and 2 show top and bottom views respectively of tile topreinforcing network for concrete flooring tiles.

FIGURE 3 shows an enlarged scale a cross-section through a part of atile in inverted position during its manufacture in a conventionalmould.

FIGURE 4 is a cross section on an enlarged scale on line IV-IV of FIG.2, showing a Variation of the arrangement of the anchoring members onone of the network sides; and

FIGURE 5 shows a flooring section comprising three adjoining squaretiles reinforced according to the invention.

According to the invention, for the manufacture of reinforced concreteflooring tiles P, a reinforcing network 2 made of mouldable plasticmaterial or of a suitable light alloy is provided which comprises aplurality of edgewise arranged flat bars forming a plurality of completepolygons plus a number of bar segments the ends of which E, F, G, H, I,K, L, N and so on, lie on the side lines A-B, A-C and so on of onecomplete tile BACD, FIGURE 1, which is formed by the reinforcing network2 and the concrete mass 1 in which said network is embedded. Thesegments AE, EF, FG, GH and HB, on' the tile side AB and thecorresponding segments on the other three tile sides are preferably ofequal length and are equal to those on an adjoining tile side, so thatthey meet end-to-end, as shown in FIG. 5.

The top sides of the segments forming the network 2 lie in the plane ofthe top or wear surface of the tile, to be formed of concreteintersected by the said network segments, whose top edges lie ushtherewith, while the bottom edges are embedded in the concrete 1.

In order to stiffen the network 2 and to maintain same well embedded inthe concrete mass 1, a rectangular frame 4 integral with some of thenetwork segments is positioned with all of its four sides spacedinwardly a `short distance from the periphery of the tile and downwardlya short distance below the surface of the tile. Said frame 4 lies eitherflush with the bottom side of the tile, as shown in FIG. 3, or iscompletely embedded in the concrete of the tile, as shown in FIG. 4.

Anchoring cross pieces 3 are also made integral of the network segments.Also said anchoring pieces may either lie flush with the bottom end ofthe tiles, as shown in FIG. 3, or may project from a middle position ofsaid network segments, as shown in FIG. 4.

All reinforcing network and frame members 2, 3, 4 are moulded and form asingle piece, which is then inserted in conventional moulds M, FIG. 3,for the manufacture of tiles with the network top against the mouldbottom and the concrete is poured and possibly vibrated and/ orcompressed in said moulds, so as to form reinforced tiles P, the topface of which is intersected by the edges of all the flat bars while thebottom face may be flush with the bottom sides of all or any of the barsof frame 4 and with any or all anchoring members 3.

As clearly shown in FIG. 5, by the described arrangement, when the tilesare placed on the surface to be tloored, the ends of the outwardlydirected prolongations of the network meet the ends of similarprolongations of the adjoining tiles and form a practicallyuninterrupted network of wear resisting material, which imparts to theflooring an aesthetic appearance.

The network may be made of mouldable synthetic resin, such as polyvinylchloride, polystirol or polyethylene, or may be made of aluminum alloy,such as duraluminum.

I claim:

A reinforced flooring tile of rectangular form comprising a body ofconcrete with a reinforcing framework ernbedded therein, said frameworkbeing composed of a rectangular frame, all four sides of which arespaced inwardly a short distance from the periphery of the tile anddownwardly below the upper surface of the tile, the space inside therectangular frame being covered by a reinforcing network formed ofedgewise positioned flat bars integral with the rectangular frame andwith their upper edges lying in the plane of the upper surface of thetile, the space between the rectangular frame and the periphery of thetile being traversed by rectilinear prolongations of said l bars, saidprolongations extending across and being integral with said frame, thefree ends of the prolongations terminating at the periphery of the tileat points equally spaced from one another and from the corners of thetile along all four edges of the tile.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 957 5/1860 Granges 52-581867,637 10/1907 Bennett 52-384 1,326,741 12/1919 Jordan 94-5 1,983,41212/1934 Smith 94-5 2,327,029 8/1943 Donelson et al. 94-5 2,852,9329/1958 Cable 52-385 3,025,772 3/1962 Palatini 52-388 3,131,514 5/1964Sick 52-384 FOREIGN PATENTS 570,763 7/ 1945 Great Britain.

FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner.

I. L. RIDGILL, Assistant Examiner.

